RECENT SERMONS

Healing & Curing

SERMON PREACHED ON EPIPHANY V, FEBRUARY 5, 2006

[Mark 1:29-39]

Within 20 years of Columbus’s arrival, smallpox had wiped out half the people of the West Indies and had begun to spread to the South American mainland. The February edition of Discover* magazine quotes an eyewitness account from a Mexican physician’s diary: the fever that hit the Aztecs in 1576 was more than small pox.

“The fevers were contagious, burning, and continuous, all of them pestilential, in most part lethal. The tongue was dry and black. Enormous thirst. Pulse was frequent, fast, small, and weak – sometimes even null. The eyes and the whole body were yellow. . . this stage followed by delirium and seizures.” (pages 44-51, February edition)

I’ll spare you further details, as it gets very gross – the results of some kind of “hemorrhagic fever” in the same class as Ebola, Marburg. Millions died.

The report got me thinking: how does that account compute with the healing stories about Jesus? How do we integrate them? What are the connections and disconnections? Different realities? The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law in Capernaum brought out the town, camped in her doorway, awaiting Jesus’ healing touch. As you know, I differentiate between healing and curing, curing possible – at least minimally - through objective diagnosis and treatment by doctors, nurses, and medications of all sorts; healing - more subjective, involving the possibility of wholeness and inner peace, a person capable of being healed even as he or she is dying from disease tomorrow. I base that on my belief that life can exist only through order – my trust that we live in a biological, encapsulated world in which each disease follows its own course, which is how research – and sometimes luck – can learn to cure it or even prevent it. I believe Jesus lived in exactly the same world as we do. I know, too, that we live in mystery, and unexplained “curings” sometimes happen.

It’s just that I think God loves each person totally, 100%. As Paul wrote to the Church at Rome: “Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give.” Some years ago I had an interesting conversation with General Walker, who wrote God is My Copilot. He was certain that the shell from a Japanese fighter pilot didn’t explode when it struck his helmet because of his mother’s prayers. I asked him, “What about all the other poor souls who were killed – on all sides of the battle. Doesn’t God love them, too? Do you really think their deaths resulted from a lack of prayer? What kind of cynical god would that portray? Not one that I could trust, respect, or love.”

In whatever world view 1^st century people lived, I believe Jesus was a healing force for Peter’s mother-in-law, and for all those people who flocked to see him, to receive his touch, but I don’t believe it was supernatural. There’s a good chance, for example, that Jesus would have caught whatever virus hit the Aztecs, for I am positive he would have been among them, not shying away, moving among them, bringing peace, sharing his loving care.

I believe, also, that there really is a link between body, mind, and spirit. Christian Science isn’t at all scientific, but it’s not all wrong, either. Like the definition of heresy, it contains a truth that tries to be the whole truth, which it’s not a big enough to carry. Still we need to respect and remember the bit of truth it does contain. That was illustrated beautifully in this week’s Gospel according to Newsweek** – you may have read it, written by the man’s brother

“When Robert arrived at the Bronx Psychaitric Center in l998, Dr. Alvin Pam, chief of psychology, told me it was the consensus of the staff that he would never be able to live without supervision, and if discharged, was destined to be repeatedly rehospitalized. By this time, my brother had been a patient in the New York state mental health system for nearly 40 years, and had been given nearly every antipsychotic medication known to humankind. . . but not any of the new medications. . . Robert’s reaction to [a particular] drug was seemingly dramatic. Several months after he started taking it, Dr. Pam called to say his recovery was nothing short of miraculous – he was clear thinking, free of delusions, and the hospital was planning his discharge.” But then something awful happened: his social worker, Alan, was leaving, being transferred to another state hospital. “Robert began having tantrums, hallucinations, bodily tremors, irrational fears, panic attacks, and he became both dangerously manic and depressed. . . The question, then: why did the medication that worked so well on Monday stop working on Tuesday? At about this time I was interviewing hundreds of former mental patients for a book I was writing. . . What attributed to their transformation? No matter what else they named, they all – every last one – said that a key element was a relationship with a human being: social worker, a nurse, a doctor. . . clergyman or family member. In every instance it was the presence in their lives of an individual who said, in effect, ‘I believe in your ability to recover, and I am going to stay with you until you do’ that brought them back.”
** (page 17 of Newsweek: “My Turn” Feb 6, 2006)

I think that is minimally what Jesus did. At a time when Law was everything, he saw each person as a human being, related to each one in that very personal way with the kind of loving respect that says, “I care, totally, about you.” That presence is what we as a parish are called to do as the Body of Christ in this place: person to person, not just clergy to person. That’s one of the gifts of faith, how miracles can happen. That applies also, I believe, to prevention, which can be as important as healing. By lifestyle - eating, exercising, a spirit of gratitude to God, and the relationships that result between and among us, church people tend to be healthier. Our Health Ministry, coordinated by our Parish Nurse working with parishioners, clergy and staff, tries to help us see the connection of mind, body, and spirit, affirming the healing presence of Christ in our midst, combining the curing possibilities of medicine and knowledge with the healing properties of relationship made up of faith, hope, and love. All of these together bring the possibility of wholeness and fullness of life, well loved and well lived.

Copyright: Ernest W. Cockrell

2/5/6

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